IN its second wave of staffing cuts this year, Compaq Computer Corporation said yesterday it was trimming 4,000 more jobs - bringing the total number of workers it plans to cut this year to 8,500.

The announcement, made after trading closed on the New York Stock Exchange, came as the Houston-based company assured investors its second-quarter earnings will meet the Thomson Financial/First Call analysts' consensus of 4 cents per share.

Second-quarter revenues will drop to 8.4 billion dollars, a 17% drop from 10.13 billion dollars in revenue in the year-ago quarter, Compaq said.

The computer maker blamed worsening economic conditions in Europe.

"We are committed to taking aggressive actions during this period of slow demand to make permanent improvements in our business model," said Michael Capellas, Compaq chairman and chief executive officer.

"It is now clear that the economic slowdown is spreading overseas and we will therefore move more swiftly and go even deeper in our structural cost reduction programmes."

Compaq will take a restructuring charge of about 490 million dollars in the second quarter, which it said was mostly related to job cuts.

The company is expected to save 900 million dollars annually from the total reductions.

So far, Compaq has cut 3,500 jobs in a restructuring programme announced earlier this year. Before Compaq started trimming its work force, it employed 67,000 people.

"We are aggressively executing against the restructuring programme we announced in March," chief financial officer Jeff Clarke said.

"However, further actions are required and we will address these with similar urgency."

Compaq is scheduled to reveal complete second-quarter results after the market closes on July 25.

Shares of Compaq fell 44 cents to 13.76 dollars in trading today on the New York Stock Exchange but rose to 14.05 dollars in after-hours trading.